Having recently been re-reminded of this comment, let me take a moment to briefly explain myself with regards to my previous post. Yes, I intentionally used humor. But my point was both sober and serious.
First: I'm extremely sensitive to the importance of "professional continuing-education," partly because I spent many years
writing and teaching community-college courses (full-semester ...) at the second-largest such college system in the US. Most of my students were adults who held bachelor's or advanced degrees. I have also from time to time been asked to
contribute to certification programs ... although, full-disclosure, not for Linux.
Thus: I have no quibble with the value of professional self-education in whatever form ... but I
do have an issue with "Willy-Wonka Marketing" aimed at those who don't know any better. The unashamed pitch is that this multi-thousand dollar(!) piece of paper is going to magically transform you from a know-nothing to a know-it-all that the world will beat down its doorway to hire. (And I know quite a few
PhD's who are still paying off their student loans twenty years later who say much the same things.)
"I'm Doctor™ So-What ..." (It is, unfortunately, a
valid point ...)
Second: Yes, I had the privilege of being involved in computer software
as all of these things were coming to pass. Yes, I read about
"Winchester" hard drives, very excitedly, and I still have a 5MB hard-drive that's about the size of a breadbox ... it was so big. (And, it
was!) It was revolutionary. (And, it
was!) At the time. So, if you will pardon me for saying, I
do look at "issues" like "systemd
vs. sysV-init"
in context, simply because I
can. It is, in fact, nothing. (At least, nothing unusual.) Experience has its privileges.
"Those days" might seem "old-fashioned therefore strange" to you ... but I simply calmly say to you,
"just wait, and don't plan to wait long." I remember when Novell was selling certificates on how to run local-area networks that were based on
coax ... not the "twisted pair" cables that are quite likely to be
all that you have ever seen. Their (now worthless ...) certificates were sold, as is the case now, as "the ticket to the good life." The technology changed ...
here's a link describing the technology in case you haven't heard of it (and I know you haven't ...) ... and those thousand dollars turned into
an advertisement for how being a shoe-salesman landing "$3,000 a year" was really a Small Fortune.
Yeah, the "compulsively hyper-connected Brave New World™" is (of course ...)
nothing like what I would have anticipated "at the time," but it
does give me one wee small bit of ("BC" Comics ...)
TRVTH ... "that:
you are not anticipating it, either." (In fact, "par for the course," you do not
yet... heh... perceive that you have anything in particular to anticipate.)
Somewhere out there, there's a "RHCE Salesman." (Just like the guy in that hyperlink who sold shoes door-to-door in a world that could not imagine throw-away junk.) He's got a "by-definition perishable" product to sell.
("Who the hell's gonna buy RHEL6 stuff when RHEL7 comes out?") Clever salesman that he is, he's got the answer:
"just sell it to 'em twice!"
Now, some people might accuse me of clinging too-fondly to the notion that
"In the end, Old Age and Treachery out-distance Youth And Vigor every Time!" but, as I said, my purposes
are quite serious. If you're going to be part of the computer-business, you have to understand
first of all that: "nothing lasts five years, even on a good day." But also: "people still need the same things from their computers,
despite the change,
and: they need you more than ever(!)
because of the change."
"Bricks," like "Mortar" and "Steel Beams," have not re-invented themselves in hundreds of years. Computer technology "reinvents itself every few ...
and keeps doing so." This requires a
c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y d-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-t strategy than what you are conditioned to be "used to."
None(!) of this stuff will "be like this" even
two years from now. And if you doubt me, "it's happening (again) right-now under-your-nose."
LQQK right-now at "Android / iPhone / Kindle-Fire" and, prithee, tell me
exactly how they are "materially different" one from the other. They are not. They're just three competing product-lines, all birthed from the very same parent, and
all of them have a market life-span, in their present form, of no more than 5 years. They are all offspring of "the original subject-matter of
linuxquestions.org," even though at first glance they may seem to have nothing to do with it.
"All of you 'stand on the shoulders of' a PDP-7 ... even though, today, almost none of you know it. "Too bad."
Now meanwhile: "you have a
client to serve," and (s)he needs you more than ever. She finds herself in the middle of a turbulent stream that she
must cross, but the rocks are bobbling under her feet even as "the whole damned
river changes course!" The
big picture, not "the tiny one, whatever-it-is
today," is the one that you (and she ...) needs now.
If you can't drag your point-of-view
out of "the details," in order to properly take-in "the big picture," then I'm afraid that you are doomed to
work for 
those who did. Just sayin' ...
